Bio

John Cofresi is senior counsel in WSHB’s New York City office, where he focuses on professional liability and complex litigation dealing with catastrophic injury and cyber exposures. John brings together his years of experience litigating cases as a defense attorney with his carrier-side experience from his tenure as a claims consultant with CNA to benefit the firm’s clients. He has a proven track record of successfully resolving complex high-exposure matters. John’s experience includes the successful defense of owners, developers, general contractors, and construction managers in a variety of different matters including, but not limited to, work site accidents, premises liability, rescission actions under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (“ILSA”), accessibility claims under the Americans with Disability Act, and claims of housing discrimination by prospective home buyers. John also has experience defending large-scale multi-action property damage subrogation matters from fires and floods. A few of his notable successes include securing the recovery of legal fees for a general contractor and developer from the underlying subcontractors in a contested labor law matter; the voluntary discontinuance of ILSA claims as time-barred; a defense verdict in a week-long trial in Kings County in a matter involving a bowling accident; and the summary dismissal of an extremely high value property damage subrogation claim arising out of a fire that had been asserted against a fire suppression system servicer.

As a claims consultant at CNA, John oversaw lawyers’ professional liability claims against U.S.-based and international law firms arising from all areas of substantive practice. His experience includes the analysis of complex insurance coverage matters for both duty to defend policies and indemnity policies. John has lead large quota share policies with monitoring counsel and large quota share policies without monitoring counsel. While John was with CNA, he was also a member of a dedicated team that handled check scam/wire transfer fraud matters. His experience in these matters included check scams from fraudulent clients, wire frauds from intercepted e-mail transmissions, and spoofed e-mail accounts. John’s experience with lawyer’s professional liability matters includes claims involving legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, malicious prosecution, Judiciary Law Section 487, sanctions, fraud, and attorney disciplinary matters. John’s experience with disciplinary matters also includes a tenure with the State of New York Grievance Committee for the Second and Eleventh Judicial Districts as an intern while in law school.

Outside the office, John is an active member of his community and enjoys spending time with his wife and children. He is a member of the New York Road Runners and can often be found training for an upcoming race. John has completed more than 20 races for a cumulative distance of over 135 miles, including the New York City Marathon in 2016. He is also an experienced snowboarder and climber whose climbing experience includes the “Gunks,” Joshua Tree, and the Barton Greenbelt in Austin, Texas.